David W. Hedrick called for privatizing Social Security at a candidate forum aired by Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Think Out Loud” program Thursday.
Four candidates for the open 3rd Congressional District seat — Republicans Hedrick, David Castillo and Jaime Herrera and Democrat Denny Heck — took part in the hourlong group interview, which came just five days before Washington’s Aug. 17 top two primary.
Hedrick, a Tea Party activist, called Social Security “a pyramid scheme” and questioned whether the program, created by Congress in the throes of the Great Depression, was even constitutional.
“We have to take people in the future off Social Security and put their money in private investments,” he said.
Asked by moderator Dave Miller whether he would be “scared” to entrust his retirement nest egg to the private investment market, Hedrick said he’d be scared to have it tied up in government. He said providing a social safety net for any group is beyond the scope of the federal government’s role as defined in the Constitution.
“David may think he’s smarter than the people in the 1930s who set up Social Security,” quipped Castillo. Those people decided the program was constitutional, he said.
Castillo said he favors federal entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicaid for people who need help making ends meet. He noted that his own family relied on public assistance when he was growing up in Centralia.
“I’m not one of those people who believe government is evil,” he said.
State Rep. Herrera, R-Camas, said she wants to put Social Security on sound footing by reducing federal spending. She said she would not favor cutting Social Security benefits because “that is a promise we need to keep” to seniors.
Heck said he was “unalterably opposed to privatizing Social Security,” especially in light of what Wall Street has done to wreck the nation’s economy.
Most actuaries believe the threat to the Social Security Trust Fund doesn’t become urgent until 2037, Heck said, so raising the issue at this time is “a bit of a head fake.”
“Medicaid is in much more immediate peril,” he said.
That provoked a snarl from Hedrick, who said that “let’s kick this can down the road” approach is typical of Democrats.
The candidates also sparred over climate change legislation that has passed the House but is stalled in the Senate.
All three Republican candidates have signed a pledge sponsored by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, saying they will oppose any climate change bill that results in a net increase in government revenue.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the House bill would result in an $846 billion increase in federal revenue over time.
“The science on global warming is hokey at best,” Hedrick declared. “The last thing you would want to do is cap trade here and send jobs to China.”
“There’s a real healthy debate” under way about whether humans cause climate change, Herrera said. She said she believes in releasing the ingenuity of entrepreneurs to discover new sources of clean energy, but with unemployment in Southwest Washington hovering at 12 percent, it’s no time to impose an energy tax.
Castillo agreed. “We still have a natural resource-based economy here,” he said. “The science is not settled.” It may be prudent to move toward cleaner fuels, he said, but the nation should not be putting its own energy reserves off-limits.
Again, Heck strongly dissented. “Climate change is real,” he said. “The scientific evidence is in. … The most important thing is to reduce our fossil fuel dependence and get out from under the thumb of people who hate us.”
